Corona and Environment, Nepal - 1

While environmental quality of Nepalese cities has been seen improved due to stoppage of industrial, commercial and transport sector activities, observation of rural environment shows the environmental quality has been deteriorated due to increased pressure on rural environment. The pressure has increased due to back flow of people from cities to villages to dodge corona infection. Similarly, the people have earned time, which is used to create extra burden on environment.

In my village, people are burning forests for entertainment, expanding farmland or growing grass for pastoring. Aquatic ecosystems of local rivers have been destroyed by overfishing. Electric current is being used to kill fishes, which is also killing other lives in the ecosystem. Similarly poisoning is also used for fishing, which also kills aquatic lives other than fish especially amphibians which were already in pressure due to degradation of aquatic environment.

I had recently visited to a river of my village. I was surprised not to see shoal of fish, which was a usual scene some years ago. The corona dodgers have no mercy towards the fish, frogs, tadpoles, crab and other aquatic creatures. I saw several groups fishing in the river using different methods including electrocution. The fishermen were not the illiterate aged persons, but the educated ones, who had received at least high school level education. This scene was an example of failure of civic education in Nepal.

Activities like forest fire and burning of agricultural residues are polluting the air, when we are pretending to breathe fresh air in urban settings. The deforestation rate seems to be increased. Asleep agricultural activities seem to be awaken because the returned folks have used their free time in agricultural activities. They have done so in fear of predicted food crisis and price hike in near future. Oxen have been replaced by power tillers for saving time, money and better tillage, which has increased consumption of fossil fuel.

In another visit to a forest, I couldn't breathe because of smoke released due to forest fire. My eyes were burning of smoke. I saw the forest floor was black of charcoal, shoot and ash. It was not about a certain section of forest but the entire landscape. People were seen igniting fire in the forest area adjacent to their farmland for clearing purpose. Upon my query, they said that they did this to protect their farm from wild animals and expand pastor for their farm animals. The scene was very awful and painful to a conscious person.

In global setting, though the environment has felt relaxed now due to reduced economic activities, there is certainty of explosion of economic activities after this corona outbreak ends. This will shadow the environmental issues, which were just being mainstreamed with development before corona. So the environmental scientists and environmentalists need to prepare strategies to plan how to advocate about environmental issues at that time. It is clearly obvious that environmental degradation is more dangerous than any virus outbreak, because of slow killing and vast nature of former.